Our Family – Page 91 – Andelin Adventures

Brigham City Temple Dedication

Growing up in the Church, we would make the occasional drive down to the Los Angeles Temple and explore the grounds, including rolling down the steep grassy slope out front. Then, I remember when the San Diego Temple open house happened, and we had to dress up and drive down there to visit and actually walk through a temple. That felt like a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. It was very beautiful inside and almost surreal.

On my mission, I got to have it as a twice-in-a-lifetime opportunity, as the Manchester Temple open house happened whilst we were there, and our entire mission got permission to hop on buses and drive up to the temple for the day. Again, it was beautiful inside and much different from the limited number of temples I have been in.

Living in Utah, we have temples all over. It’s been really cool when we drove up to Yellowstone, as we passed a large number of temples (Mt Timpanogos, Jordan River, Draper, Oquirrh Mt, Salt Lake, Bountiful, Ogden, and some up in Idaho as well.) The Brigham City temple was under construction, but we still got out and walked around the area for about an hour.

Now, we had a chance to attend the dedication as the church was broadcasting it to local buildings. Even better, they allowed kids eight and up to attend, if they could get an interview to get a recommend. Since Ethan and Tyra were both over eight, they were able to get theirs and attend their very first temple dedication with me. They were really good at sitting through the talks, and both got to enjoy the overall experience.

Dinah Turns FIVE

Dinah’s birthday was on Friday, and I had a dentist appointment that day. While we were in the elevator, Kyle told Dinah that she doesn’t get to turn five until she cleans up her room. She tried to tell him that that’s not how it works, it was really funny. Then after my girl scout meeting, we took the family to Olive Garden for dinner. She loves that restaurant and has been asking to go for such a long time. Yesterday she got to open her present and cards.

I have had Dinah’s birthday present wrapped and on the top of the book shelf for most of the YEAR. She has seen in there and has anticipated opening it and finding out what it is for a really long time. I confess, I was excited for her to open it as well. I just couldn’t wait to see her face when she saw what it was.

They are Hello Kitty mega blocks (similar to legos). Kyle and I saw them when we were out doing Christmas shopping last year, and I just KNEW she would love them.

Today, we sang to her and everyone had cake.

That is one very eager little girl.

Dinah is a very sweet girl, when she wants to be. She is also quite a challenge. I think back to when she was born, and the midwife commented on how skinny her umbilical cord was. They were concerned that it was missing one of the veins. After carefully examining it, they found all three. The cord also didn’t attach to the placenta in the usual way. It was attached only by a thin filmy something. I remember thinking that it could have been so easy for her to kick through that and she may not have made it to birth. Then I think of how as an infant she nearly starved to death. We took her in for regular well child check ups, but her weight was really low. I had to take her in frequently for weight checks. At every well child check up her percentile for weight got lower and lower. Just the night before her four month check up I remember changing her clothes and commenting to Kyle on how bony her chest looked. I said that I would ask about it when I took her in the next day. When I took her in for her four month check up she weighed less than she did when she was two months old. Her percentile for weight had dropped to negative 3, and that is when the doctor pointed out that there was a problem and we needed to switch to formula. I sometimes wonder, how much longer she would have lasted if we didn’t realize that there was a problem. Then I think of the time when she was two that she ran off, and it took us a couple of hours to find her. The longer it took us to find her, the more I started wondering if we would ever find her. This child is the reason that I have taken up running. She loves to follow her feet and has no fear, unless she needs to go to the bathroom and the light is off down the hall… But she is also very intelligent. She speaks in full sentences, sometimes with understanding beyond her years. She is always so full of energy, and can sometimes be rather funny. I am very grateful to have my Dinah in my life.

Utah State Fair

It’s state fair time again! The kids really enjoyed going to the fair last year, so we decided we would go again this year, especially since there are a bunch of things that cub scouts can get signed off by being there. We had a coupon for $2 off admission for boy scouts and girl scouts if they wore there uniform. So Ethan wore his scout shirt and Tyra wore her brownie vest to the fair.

We walked around and looked and the home arts exhibits and worked our way over to the “Little Hands on the Farm” exhibit. It’s an exhibit set up to show kids the order of how things get from the farm to the stores. The kids enjoyed going through it last year and were asking if it was back again this year. This year when we finished it though there was a room set up next to the farm store where kids could make farm animal masks. So we spent some time there letting the kids each make a mask (and then we got to sign that off in Ethan’s bear book 😉 ).

When all the kids were done making their masks we worked our way over to the livestock exhibits (another thing to sign off in Ethan’s book). The kids were disappointed that we passed the giant slide and didn’t buy tickets to go down. Jeremy was especially unhappy about that. But we made up for it later on.

I personally enjoy walking in the barns and seeing all the animals. It takes me back to the days when I was a teenager and my family had a goat and two ponies and geese, and ducks and chickens and rabbits. Not to forget the dog and the cats.

After petting the sheep Dinah wanted to try to pet one of the cows, so she came up to the hind quarters of a HUGE cow. It scared the cow, and the cow kicked. But the cow’s owners saw what was happening and got her out of the way before she got hurt. It did scare her quite a bit though. She tried to explain that she just wanted to pet it, but we had to explain to her that you NEVER approach a cow or a horse or a big animal like that, from the back because you will scare it and it will kick you. When we saw a calf in one of the rows Kyle took Dinah over so she could pet it.

After the animals we got some dinner and took the kids over to the fishing pond. Here Ethan was able to earn the fishing belt loop. They started out by talking to the kids a bit about fishing. Then they lined up all the kids and each had a turn to practice casting.

Then Ethan, Tyra, Jeremy and Dinah got to go fishing:

Their turn was up when they caught a fish, but the only one we got a picture of with his fish was Ethan. They each started fishing as soon as they had practiced casting and they were all spread all over the pond that it was difficult for Kyle to be there with each of them when they caught their fish. I was trying to keep Chloe, Lydia and Adam out of the way of the flying hooks.

Then we went into the wildlife building so Kyle could talk to the rangers about the fishing laws here in Utah. My kids really like these photo op things that they had all over the fair. And of course I have to take a picture of each kid sticking their face in the hole. Personally I think Jeremy’s faces are THE BEST!

We finished up the night with Kyle taking the five oldest kids on the ferris wheel. Chloe was JUST tall enough to go on as long as she was accompanied. I stayed on the ground with Lydia and Adam. And as we were leaving, I pulled back the visor that kept Adam out of the sun most of the day. I decided that it was dark and he was awake so I wanted to be able to see him. His face was awesome:

He really didn’t know what to make of all those lights! As we left Ethan told us to make a note to bring LOTS of cash next year. It was difficult to get some dinner because most places we went to check out only took cash. Eventually we found something for everyone to eat at places that would take our debit card. But most of the food places and the rides and games only took cash. So making a mental note for next year. 🙂

My Handsome Little Man

My little man will be three weeks old on Tuesday!

I decided to take some pictures of him today while he was still wearing his cute little suit.

Surprise Visitors!

We came home from church and tried to get all the kids to the table so we could feed them some lunch. They were sick of sitting still so they were all over the house. Kyle and I were in the kitchen making up some lunch and since we happened to be hosting the family dinner for this month I was checking on the things that I had started making for dinner, when we heard the kids yell that someone was here. Then we heard “It’s GRANDPA AND GRANDMA!” I called down the hall to them that it’s NOT Grandpa and Grandma “They are in California it’s probably just the boys coming to collect the fast offering”. They insisted that it was Grandpa and Grandma. Kyle went to answer the door, I was unconvinced and therefore continued what I was doing in the kitchen. Then he opened the door and I heard my parent’s voices! So I went to the door and the surprised greetings began. Dad was totally pleased that he fully surprised us. They were taking a trip away to meet Debby and Jeff in Vegas on Labor day and decided to leave earlier. Mom thought they were going to spend the night in St George and after getting their hotel room in St George and stopping for something to eat, they hopped back in the car and kept heading north. So even mom was surprised, she had no idea that Dad planned to come all the way up to see us. They got lucky that we were hosting the family dinner with Kyle’s family this month and so we were going to be home. That would have been so sad if they had come up and we were at either Kyle’s mom’s or sister’s house.

Dad held Adam while Mom was in the bathroom, but from the time that she got out to the time that they left (minus the time she was eating dinner) she was holding Adam. Nobody in Kyle’s family got to hold him until Mom and Dad left to head back to St George.

So Adam had a whole bunch of visitors today, considering this is the first time that my parents or Kyle’s family have met him.